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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I remain slightly amused and concerned about the situation around Senator Lieberman. Having no party affiliation, I don't care on any official or emotional level how the Democrats choose to organize their party. I do care about the openness of intellectual discussion and debate in our discourse that is being snuffed out by party ideologues. The Republicans have done this and have rightly been marginalized (their candidates certainly didn't get my vote this year).
Those on the left who seek to purify the Democratic Party will ultimately be emulating the Republican path to shrillness and irrelevance (hence my amusement at the way the party, after gaining control of the government, would use it to emulate the worst aspects of contemporary Republicanism). They will also be alienating voters like myself who supported President-Elect Obama because he refused to fit neatly into the partisan boxes that the rabid ideological bases of the parties demand. It is this style of politics that has broken our government at the national level, with Republicans, admittedly, leading the way over the past eight years.
This is not to say that Obama won't be a president of the center left. But if he does create an administration and a political environment that permits dissent among people across the political spectrum to be heard (as opposed to marginalized or punished), then he will go much further to correcting the systemic failures of our government than he would by tossing out those within and outside his party who don't pass a very narrow litmus test. This is George Bush governance, and I, for one, am heartened to see that Obama has taken some preliminary but real steps to show that he understands an important factor in what has gone wrong in our federal government over at least the past decade. Whether or not Lieberman supported his longtime friend in a presidential bid is irrelevant to the task of fixing this country; his constituents can decide on whether or not he is representing them appropriately in four years. But the more the Democrats, or at least the far left, fixate on him, the more convinced I’ll become that they don’t understand the full breadth of the coalition Obama assembled to win the election. The Democrats will disassemble this coalition at their own risk.
but still a disappointment. When the calls for money came in I told each and every solicitor that Obama was no progressive, that I was disappointed in my Party's choice of candidate, that I would vote for Obama because that was my job as a Democrat but that I would not part with my extremely hard earned cash to support the nomination. I feel good about that decision. Just hope that next election I still feel even moderately motivated to vote. And, that feeling - of not wanting to vote anymore - is a surprise.
out of the senate. Now that i know, i am duly disappointed.
Did anybody else notice that William Timberman was one of the commenters at the DSCC blog?
— Morally_Bankrupt
Yes. The only thing that really surprises me is that there hasn't been a message from the Pope saying how pissed off he is.
We have a winner!
link at sig
-- Jebbie
Good call, but this is Tuesday, November 18th. Not Wednesday November 19th.
I shall no longer enable them to come to power by giving them my vote.
That's it, Sarah, you show 'em! I can't wait until the next election is invalidated cause Sarah Brice didn't vote. You'll bring the whole fricking Republic to a standstill! I don't know how the Republican Party survived your abscounding, but the nation as a whole will not be, I am sure, so lucky.
And you just keep keepin' on with that Nixon=Clinton=Bush. That's the line to take, baby!
How can he continually last? Their is no other explanation.
I've been called a "scumbag" many, many times. But when you compare me to the late FBI chief, you go too far. I demand a retraction!
I only used that title to attract readers. I don't even know what an iota is. But seriously, Greenwald has brilliantly made the case for Progressives making a clean break from the stinking, spineless, and corrupt Dems 1343 times by my count. But each time, he ends up saying "Of course, it goes without saying that Obama is infinitely better than the repub alternative." By saying that, he practically begs the dems to piss on him. There is no downside for Dems to pissing on Progressives, just the way there is no downside to the repubs to pissing on the Dems. So the Progressives get pissed on by everyone.
No, Greenwald. As brilliant as you are in argumentation, you are completely insane.
The ONLY legitimate, ethical role for any Progressive at this repugnant point in the history of the United States is to adamantly oppose and denounce everyone currently in power (at the federal level). There are NO Progressives in Congress, the Executive, or the Judicial branches of the federal government (nor the 'cheney branch' for that matter). None. Zippo. Nada.
Greenwald is constitutionally incapable of accepting the inescapable implications of his own brilliant arguments.
IMPEACH Obama! Whose with me?!
I sure hope Accountability Now has its sights on Steny Hoyer.-- Frankly, my dear, ...
If I were a rich man I'd sell most of my castles and share most of my cutest lady friends if it would help me to defeat Steny Whore.
"It is a sad day for me, as it always must be when one's illusions are destroyed...."
I know how you feel. I'm in the same boat. But perhaps, one day in the future, we will expand our two party system and will have many more viable choices. I, too, will most likely not vote again, and certainly not for a mainstream candidate.
Anyone have thoughts on which sends the louder and clearer message (that the two party system stinks): not voting vs voting for a third party candidate? Which do the politicos hate more, a high third-party vote, or a high percentage of non-voters? Just curious - never thought of it before.
They probably don't care in the least as long as they win.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
